Connie Merigold Connie Merigold
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Played: Gertie Robson (1974)
Preston-born Constance was the daughter of a housewife mother and a father who ran his own car showrooms. As a child she appeared in three pantomimes in Manchester but when she left school she had the desires to become a journalist, dress designer or history teacher. By the end of the war, Connie was 18 years old so she took a job as a shorthand typist where she stayed for three years. At the age of 21, she joined the Charlie Denville Repertory Theatre in Northwich and made her professional debut in the play Quiet Weekend. She studied drama at PARADA but was rejected by RADA because of her Northern accent. When not working as an actress Connie worked for her father and she was there when she was called at short notice to appear in Blackpool in Ghost Train at the Jack Rose Repertory Company. She then spent two years in Ashton-under-Lyne in repertory theatre before transferring to Southport Rep.
Connie then answered an advertisement in The Stage and was cast as an understudy for theatres in Blackpool, Manchester and Sunderland. She then became an understudy at the Garrick Theatre in London for their production of Saturday Night At the Crown, a job she had for 11 years, never actually having to go on at all. She then became a stage manager for Harold Brighouse before making her television debut in the BBC play Lonesome Night in 1950. This was performed live and she played Wilfred Pickles girlfriend. Connie soon became a popular character actress and she appeared alongside Dorothy Sayers, Dame Gladys Cooper, Avis Landen, Gabrielle Daye, Ian Carmichael and Joan Plowright. She returned to the West End and appeared in productions including The Paper Hat, The Seagull, The Bed Before Breakfast and Saturday Night At The Crown.
On television she appeared in endless commercials and worked as an extra in Skyport and Knight Errant. She played the mother in Clayhanger. She understudied Lauren McGrath at the Haymarket in London and toured Canada with Alec Guinness, Jeremy Brett and Michael Redgrave and appeared in repertory theatre with William Roache. In 1974 she took a role in Coronation Street as caretaker Gertie Robson who ran the community centre in between looking after her troublesome nephew Gary Turner. Connie was on set on the first day when she discovered that her father had died and she fondly remembers how supportive Doris Speed was.
After Coronation Street, Connie appeared in the films The Young Winston and The Family Way, although in the later her voice was dubbed. She then appeared as Mollie in Saturday Night at The Crown, in the series Tom Grafton's War and in Murder Most Advertised. She did her final job alongside Joan Plowright before making the tough decision to retire to nurse her sick mother in 1977.
Following her mother's death, Connie resumed her career with the role of Mrs Abiniery in Emmerdale in 1980 but by this time she was crippled with arthritis and decided to retire totally.
Connie never married but lives alone in Lancashire.
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